Articles | Volume 18, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12915-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12915-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
07 Sep 2018
Research article |
| 07 Sep 2018
| 07 Sep 2018
Gravity waves excited during a minor sudden stratospheric warming
Andreas Dörnbrack
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Sonja Gisinger
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Natalie Kaifler
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Tanja Christina Portele
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Martina Bramberger
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Markus Rapp
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Meteorologisches Institut München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
Michael Gerding
Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Rostock, Kühlungsborn, Germany
Jens Faber
Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Rostock, Kühlungsborn, Germany
Nedjeljka Žagar
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Department of Physics, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Damjan Jelić
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Department of Physics, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Revised manuscript not accepted
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Yuan-Bing Zhao, Nedjeljka Žagar, Frank Lunkeit, and Richard Blender
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Jens Faber, Michael Gerding, and Torsten Köpnick
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Valerian Hahn, Ralf Meerkötter, Christiane Voigt, Sonja Gisinger, Daniel Sauer, Valéry Catoire, Volker Dreiling, Hugh Coe, Cyrille Flamant, Stefan Kaufmann, Jonas Kleine, Peter Knippertz, Manuel Moser, Philip Rosenberg, Hans Schlager, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, and Jonathan Taylor
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Benjamin Witschas, Sonja Gisinger, Stephan Rahm, Andreas Dörnbrack, David C. Fritts, and Markus Rapp
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In this paper, a novel scan technique is applied to an airborne coherent Doppler wind lidar, enabling us to measure the vertical wind speed and the horizontal wind speed along flight direction simultaneously with a horizontal resolution of about 800 m and a vertical resolution of 100 m. The performed observations are valuable for gravity wave characterization as they allow us to calculate the leg-averaged momentum flux profile and, with that, the propagation direction of excited gravity waves.
Natalie Kaifler, Bernd Kaifler, Markus Rapp, and David C. Fritts
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 949–961, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-949-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-949-2023, 2023
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We used a lidar to measure polar mesospheric clouds from a balloon floating in the upper stratosphere. The thin-layered ice clouds at 83 km altitude are perturbed by waves. The high-resolution lidar soundings reveal small-scale structures induced by the breaking of those waves. We study these patterns and find that they occur very often. We show their morphology and discuss associated dynamical physical processes, which help to interpret case studies and to guide modelling.
Hans-Christoph Lachnitt, Peter Hoor, Daniel Kunkel, Martina Bramberger, Andreas Dörnbrack, Stefan Müller, Philipp Reutter, Andreas Giez, Thorsten Kaluza, and Markus Rapp
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 355–373, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-355-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-355-2023, 2023
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We present an analysis of high-resolution airborne measurements during a flight of the DEEPWAVE 2014 campaign in New Zealand. The focus of this flight was to study the effects of enhanced mountain wave activity over the Southern Alps. We discuss changes in the upstream and downstream distributions of N2O and CO and show that these changes are related to turbulence-induced trace gas fluxes which have persistent effects on the trace gas composition in the lower stratosphere.
Iana Strigunova, Richard Blender, Frank Lunkeit, and Nedjeljka Žagar
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 1399–1414, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1399-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1399-2022, 2022
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We show that the Eurasian heat waves (HWs) have signatures in the global circulation. We present changes in the probability density functions (PDFs) of energy anomalies in the zonal-mean state and in the Rossby waves at different zonal scales in relation to the changes in intramonthly variability. The skewness of the PDF of planetary-scale Rossby waves is shown to increase during HWs, while their intramonthly variability is reduced, a process referred to as blocking.
Natalie Kaifler, Bernd Kaifler, Markus Rapp, and David C. Fritts
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4923–4934, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4923-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4923-2022, 2022
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We measured polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs), our Earth’s highest clouds at the edge of space, with a Rayleigh lidar from a stratospheric balloon. We describe how we derive the cloud’s brightness and discuss the stability of the gondola pointing and the sensitivity of our measurements. We present our high-resolution PMC dataset that is used to study dynamical processes in the upper mesosphere, e.g. regarding gravity waves, mesospheric bores, vortex rings, and Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities.
Carsten Baumann, Antti Kero, Shikha Raizada, Markus Rapp, Michael P. Sulzer, Pekka T. Verronen, and Juha Vierinen
Ann. Geophys., 40, 519–530, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-519-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-519-2022, 2022
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The Arecibo radar was used to probe free electrons of the ionized atmosphere between 70 and 100 km altitude. This is also the altitude region were meteors evaporate and form secondary particulate matter, the so-called meteor smoke particles (MSPs). Free electrons attach to these MSPs when the sun is below the horizon and cause a drop in the number of free electrons, which are the subject of these measurements. We also identified a different number of free electrons during sunset and sunrise.
Matic Pikovnik, Žiga Zaplotnik, Lina Boljka, and Nedjeljka Žagar
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 625–644, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-625-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-625-2022, 2022
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Potential future changes in the Hadley cells (HCs), either to their strength or their meridional extent, will profoundly impact the global distribution of precipitation. Therefore, to objectively evaluate and inter-compare past and future changes in the overall HC strength between different studies, a unified metric is required. The study proposes two new metrics, which alleviate the spatial inhomogeneities of the HC strength trend.
Kevin Ohneiser, Albert Ansmann, Bernd Kaifler, Alexandra Chudnovsky, Boris Barja, Daniel A. Knopf, Natalie Kaifler, Holger Baars, Patric Seifert, Diego Villanueva, Cristofer Jimenez, Martin Radenz, Ronny Engelmann, Igor Veselovskii, and Félix Zamorano
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7417–7442, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7417-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7417-2022, 2022
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We present and discuss 2 years of long-term lidar observations of the largest stratospheric perturbation by wildfire smoke ever observed. The smoke originated from the record-breaking Australian fires in 2019–2020 and affects climate conditions and even the ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere. The obvious link between dense smoke occurrence in the stratosphere and strong ozone depletion found in the Arctic and in the Antarctic in 2020 can be regarded as a new aspect of climate change.
Stefanie Knobloch, Bernd Kaifler, and Markus Rapp
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-310, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-310, 2022
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The study tests the quality of temperature measurements from the airborne Rayleigh lidar ALIMA. The ALIMA system was first used during the SouthTRAC campaign in September 2019 in the vicinity of the Southern Andes, Drake Passage and Antarctic Peninsula. The raw lidar measurements are additionally simulated based on reanalysis data for one research flight. Different types of uncertainty influencing the accuracy of the temperature measurements are studied, e.g. atmospheric and technical sources.
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Short summary
A deep upper-air sounding stimulated the current investigation of internal gravity waves excited during a minor sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) in the Arctic winter 2015/16. The analysis of the radiosonde profile revealed large kinetic and potential energies in the upper stratosphere without any simultaneous enhancement of upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric values. In combination with high-resolution meteorological analyses we identified an elevated source of gravity wave excitation.
A deep upper-air sounding stimulated the current investigation of internal gravity waves excited...
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